Keeping Time
by lege et lacrima
Summary: For someone to come back to life, they have to die first. Janto oneshot angstfic. - Legs -


A short Janto one-shot, written for Deviant Art's "Stopwatch Lovers" group contest. The entry had to have some reference to a stopwatch... this is what I came up with. Enjoy!

**WARNING: SPOILERS!**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Torchwood. If I did, SOMEONE would still be alive... *weeps*

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Keeping Time

When Ianto found out that Jack couldn't die, he didn't know how to react. But of course, he knew that Jack had died many times. Because for someone to come back to life, they have to die first.

He'd never thought that he would ever have to see Jack die. Jack would always come back, it wouldn't matter how many times died, because he would always be there. But Ianto knew that one day _he_ would die, and Jack would leave him behind. Because Jack would always be there. And whenever Jack died, god forbid Ianto would have anything to do with it.

The first time he saw Jack die, the Torchwood team were on a mission to capture some aliens set loose in the Cardiff city centre. They were vicious – they would tear you from the inside out with their claws like cold, blunt knives, laced with venom. Jack got away with just a scratch, but it was enough to kill him. He was dead for three minutes and fifteen seconds.

After a while, Ianto got used to it, inasmuch as he could ever hope to. He was still acclimatising himself with the fact that maybe, yes, he was in love with Jack, and this was no passing fancy. But if he couldn't even get his head around that, how was he going to cope with his lover's frequent deaths?

Jack had fallen off the building, broken all the bones in his body. But there he was, fifty-three seconds later, alive and walking.

Jack had been shot so many times that Ianto had lost count. He wasn't out for long after being shot. The longest had been four minutes and twenty-seven seconds. The shortest, eight seconds.

The longest he had ever been dead for was eight days, three hours, forty-nine minutes and eleven seconds.

Ianto had never seen Jack blown up until that day, although he was sure he must have been at least once. As Ianto had left Jack behind, Jack had said "I'll come back, I always do". Ianto knew that, he told himself that every time. But he could never, try as he might, bring himself to believe it.

Jack had come back, like he said he would. Because of course, as Ianto had known all along, he always did.

xxx

As he lay in Jack's arms, his breath fading, Ianto knew that this was it. "Don't forget me," he whispered with all the breath he could muster.

"Never could," Jack replied, shaking his head. His face was already dripping with tears.

"In a thousand years time, you won't remember me," Ianto stated. It was blunt; Jack almost flinched.

"Yes I will, Ianto," he said quietly, "I promise, I will."

But Ianto didn't reply. His hand slipped into his pocket, and the little stopwatch within began ticking away softly but precisely.

Several hours later, when Jack finally stopped his sobbing, he heard the soft ticking.

xxx

The year is 3009. A lone man in an army jacket walks into a pub in Cardiff and seats himself at the bar. He's been around the world, but he always returns to Cardiff. It's almost like he, a wanderer of time and space, has a home. If that's even possible.

He sits down at the bar next to a man who's already made his way through several pints, and orders one for himself.

"Wha's tha' noise?" the man slurs drunkenly, digging a finger into his ear as though to make sure he was hearing correctly.

"What noise?" Jack asks, taking a large swig from the pint.

"You go' a bloody antique watch on or somin', mate? 'Cause I can hear somin' tickin'."

"Oh, that," Jack says with a sad smile, "that's just an old stopwatch."

"No-one uses them anymore," the man says, "tha' from the twenny-firs' cenchry, or wha'?"

"Yep," Jack confirms, "it's been ticking since then, too. For a thousand years."

As though a man owning a stopwatch for a thousand years were perfectly normal, the drunk man replies "S'a wonder you've ha' it for so long. Ain't y'ever los' it, or forgo'en it somewhere?"

"Forgotten it?" Jack says with a laugh.

"Never."

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Yes no maybe so? Leave a review and let me know what you thought!

- _Legs_


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